The Better Bust
by BlackMH
Summary: Marceline and Bubblegum visit a hot spring. While in the waters, one girl realizes that, sometimes, it's not always about having the better bust. Friendship fic. FinnxBubblegum, but only in context. :P Rated T for a mature theme.


I don't know why I wrote this. I just like writing Bubblegum and Marceline and writing up a good friendship talk between the two. It just seems very natural for some reason.

Oh well. Marceline and Bubblegum in the hot springs. You know you want to read it. :P

**The Better Bust**

…

"You sure you'll be alright?" she asked.

"I will be, I just can't stay in for longer than thirty minutes," the princess replied.

The vampire simply shrugged as she turned around and reached for the doorknob. Gripping it, she twisted the knob and opened the door, revealing a well lit room with shelves packed with towels and cabinets for storing clothes. There was a bench in the middle of the room between the box shelves for visitors who wore shoes. The other end of the room was a paper sliding door, the light of a few lamps being clearly seen through the flimsy material.

"Alright, but I'm not gonna keep track of time for you," Marceline said as she walked further into the room.

"I didn't expect you to," Bubblegum retorted, walking into the light of the room, "So, how did you find this place again?"

"I used to come here a lot when I was a human," Marceline said, sitting on the bench to remove her boots, "After I turned into a vampire, I still visited these springs, and it's nice to see that the place hasn't changed much in the thousand years I've been alive."

Bubblegum removed her crown from her head, placing it in a cabinet to lock it from would be thieves.

"You and the manager seemed to be good friends," she said.

Marceline sighed, "Yeah, I saved the business a few times. Once from an angry lobster god, and again from an army of cactus worms," she said, removing the other boot, "To this day, I still don't know what's worse, the pinch of a lobster god, or the bites of a thousand tiny teeth."

Bubblegum chuckled. She began to undo the buttons of her dress hidden under her long gum hair.

"Probably the worm bites. Your immunities as a vampire nullified the numbing effect of the cactus worm's bite. Would've been a lot less painful than the lobster's pinching, just saying."

Marceline chuckled. "Bites bite."

Bubblegum, with the buttons undone, shed her dress and pulled it down to the floor. Marceline, with her back turned to the princess, stood up and placed her red boots into one of the shelves, the boots also holding her socks balled up within. The vampire then began to remove her white sleeveless shirt, moving it over her head and over her long raven colored hair. A minor struggle, but she managed to remove the shirt and off of her hair. Marceline glanced backwards to see the princess already removed of her dress and was on the bench, taking off her princess shoes. Marceline took a good look at the princess's backside and couldn't help but smirk.

'Not a bad figure, pinky,' she thought, turning back to the shelves, 'Especially with all that candy you eat.'

Bubblegum didn't notice the vampire eyeing her as she removed her pink shoes, standing up and placing them in a box shelf separated from her crown. She looked back down at herself, with only her corset and underwear left to remove. Out of some unknown incentive, the princess peeked backwards to see the vampire folding her shirt and placing it in a shelf with her red boots. She thought nothing much of the vampire's figure aside from how well her jeans complimented her form. In her mind, she wished she could dress like that without receiving disturbed stares from her adoring candy citizens. The life of royalty was a tiring one, sometimes.

The princess turned back her attention to undoing the corset she was wearing. She moved her hands to the laces situated behind her and began to untie them. After a few knots untangled and undone, the corset was loose and the princess removed it from her person. Marceline had just removed her jeans, sliding them off of her legs, and began to fold them when she looked back at the princess. She stifled a chuckle upon seeing the white corset being placed in the shelf. Those things were ridiculous…

But then, her eyes diverted to a middle portion of the princess. Under her arms, as Bubblegum lifted them to store the corset, she noticed the princess's breast looking abnormally bigger than she recalled seeing them. Not that she ever has seen them, though. She was comparing the size of the breast she was looking at to what she could've seen of the princess's bust through her casual dresses. What perplexed her was, they always looked small to her.

Marceline turned away, growing a little suspicious about her friend, as she stashed the pants in the shelf. All that was left to remove of her was her bra and her panties. But as Marceline reached to undo the clip of her bra, she couldn't get the image of Bubblegum with a big pair of breasts out of her head. Mostly, she just couldn't imagine the candy princess with a bigger set than her own.

"Hey, Marceline?" Bubblegum said.

The vampire snapped out of her train of thought and turned to the pink princess, who was looking at her with her hands behind her back ready to unclip her bra.

"Do we wear our towels to the springs and then take them off when we enter," she asked, "Or do we keep them on in the water?"

Marceline couldn't focus on answering her question. Her eyes were staring at the breasts of the princess, snug under her cute pink bra, and in view of the vampire.

'Her boobs…' Marceline was thinking as she blinked in disbelief.

And to the dismay of the vampire, she could clearly see and evaluate their size.

'…are bigger than mine…'

"Uh, is something wrong, Marceline?" Bubblegum asked, oblivious to the vampire's stare.

Marceline shot her stare back at Bubblegum's face before turning back around and releasing her hands from the clip of her bra. She looked down at her chest and placed her hands on her two breasts, comparing them to what she saw of the princess's behind her.

'I'm a B cup…' she thought, then thinking back to Bubblegum's pair, 'She's gotta be a C cup, at least…'

Marceline's own measurement was just shy a few inches from a C cup. But looking at Bubblegum's breasts, she was easily able to tell that the princess's pair was bigger than her own, a C cup for an educated guess. She'd be perplexed at the actual size of the princess's bust and how it was never complimented by the dresses she wore, but at the moment, Marceline was experiencing an 'alpha female' crisis, so to speak.

'I thought I was the hotter one, here…' she thought, 'All this time, it was Bubblegum…'

"Marceline?" the princess asked again.

The vampire broke out of her train of thought and looked back at the princess, standing there just as when she saw her. She immediately turned away, not wanting to look at the princess and be caught staring at her voluptuous chest. She couldn't get over just how big they were, especially at how bigger they were compared to her own set, even if just by a little. Marceline, personally, always believed she was the more attractive one of the two. It didn't help that she was referred to around Ooo as 'that sexy vampire lady', aside from her normal title of Vampire Queen, which fueled her confidence in her body. To see that she was bested in terms of bust and body, and beauty as well, made her realize she wasn't as high up on the scale as she thought. And Bubblegum, of all people, was the one to have dethroned her in terms of sexiness and cuteness, at least in her head, made the realization all the more worse.

"Uhh…" she uttered, not quite remembering what Bubblegum's original question was, "Either way is fine…"

"Oh, okay then," the princess replied, proceeding to unclip her bra, "I think I'll bring a towel to the springs then."

"Uh…sure, go do that…" Marceline said slowly, sheepishly undoing her own bra as well.

As Marceline placed her bra and panties in the shelf, one snarky thought cropped up in her mind as she glanced at Bubblegum wrapping her body with a towel.

'No wonder Finn is dating you…'

Bubblegum was the first to leave the undressing room, wrapped in a towel covering her body from chest to thighs. Marceline suddenly decided to bring a towel to cover her own body after she was finished undressing. She was originally planning on remaining nude throughout their time in the hot springs, but after a recent comparison between her breasts and the princess's, she suddenly turned modest in the naked company of Bubblegum.

The springs were flowing from the mouth of a statue, vomiting the hot water into the pool. The statue was that of a werewolf and was sculpted to have a silly looking face as the water exited the pipes in the statue. The floor around the spring was a collection of smooth stones carefully leveled as not to blister or sprain the bare feet of visitors. The hot springs themselves were bordered and divided from the outside world by a tall collection of planks, leaving only the open night sky to the view of the waters below. The moon was glowing brightly tonight, amplified by the steam of the hot springs, foggily reflecting on the water below. As the girls walked, or floated in Marceline's case, closer to the water, the warm air of the springs tingled on their skin, priming their bodies for entrance to the hot waters.

Marceline cautiously levitated into the water as the princess was slowly immersing herself in the hot spring a few feet across from her. The vampire was the first to settle herself in the water, the cold blood of her body suddenly turning warm from the heat of the hot springs. The princess soon followed, breathing relief as the water warmed up her body. Marceline let the heat of the water soothe her mind for a little bit, which worked…for a little while, until she looked at the princess, head reeled back, arms spread and resting on the edge of the pool, and absorbing the warmth of the hot springs with her body. It didn't help that this reminded the vampire of her not as great as she thought it was body.

"You know, Marceline," the princess spoke, causing the vampire to look away and pretend not to have been looking at her, "I may be only able to bathe in hot water for a limited time, but I can't help but love the smooth feeling of my skin afterwards."

Bubblegum moved her head back upright and looked to the vampire, whose view of her body was covered up by her black hair all of a sudden. She did not know that Marceline had actually done that herself in an attempt to hide her own breasts and assumed that's how she entered the pool. The vampire looked at her for a bit before turning away shyly.

"Yeah, hot water is nice…" she nearly mumbled, "…to be honest, I rarely take showers myself."

Bubblegum blinked at this. "Really?"

"Yeah, I mean, whenever I feel like it, actually. I always take a bath after a tough fight or when my clothes get dirty. Vampires don't sweat, so don't think of me as a slob, pinky."

Bubblegum blinked again at the seemingly forced enthusiasm at her nickname before laughing at the vampire's bathing schedule. It was so carefree without regard, just like the vampire she knew.

Marceline groaned slightly at the princess's laughing, if only for the slight irritancy at how oblivious she was to her own enviable body, or rather how better looking she was than her. But Marceline couldn't imagine Bubblegum being a flaunter, that wasn't in her nature. If anything, she'd grow shy about her image and probably do something stupid like reduce the size of her breasts. She's got a good thing going on with herself, but she probably doesn't know it.

'Geez, Bubblegum,' Marceline thought, 'Have you been doing science or are you gifted in more ways than one?'

Bubblegum was oblivious to the tense air around Marceline. She had yet to notice how strange the vampire was acting but didn't think of it much, since Marceline usually acted more honest around her than she would around Finn or others. She simply took it as Marceline being more herself rather than something upsetting the vampire.

"So Marceline," Bubblegum began, "any boyfriends recently?"

Marceline was a little surprised at this, since her thoughts were focused on debunking the mystery of Bubblegum's sudden chest size, but it was a sudden question and Marceline had no current boyfriend to speak of. She thought it was weird for Bubblegum to bring up the subject, but it was probably just to make small talk while they were in the water. That or she only wanted to talk about Finn.

"Uh, no. Not really," she admitted, "actually, Vlad has been calling me a lot, telling me he wants to get back together."

"Oh? And are you considering it?" Bubblegum asked.

"Tch, after he tried to stake my heart to open the portal to hell?" Marceline scoffed, remembering the incident a few several hundred years ago, "No way in hell."

The two laughed heartedly, exchanging short gasps of air before calming down.

"What about you?" Marceline asked, "How are you and Finn?"

"Oh! Things are going great," Bubblegum replied happily. This made Marceline groan a little, since she knew Bubblegum has been waiting to tell her about Finn, "A few days ago he got me a batch of flowers."

"Tch, how clichéd," the vampire scoffed.

"Actually, they were to cure a sore on my foot," Bubblegum clarified, Marceline's smirk dying on her face, "It was just enough flowers to make a cure for it."

"Oh. Well, did you tell him to get them for you?" Marceline asked, "'Cause I can't imagine him knowing what kind of flowers you needed for the medicine."

"Actually, he went through the trouble of researching plants and herbs for my sore after he heard of my problem," she answered, "I originally opted for waiting it to heal because the flowers belonged to a terrible carnivorous fiery flytrap."

Marceline remembered seeing one of those plants before and reflected upon the memory in light, "Oh, one of those things, huh?"

"Yes. I didn't want Finn to endanger himself, but he went and got me the flowers anyway," Bubblegum said before she reeled her head back and sighed happily, "He's such a sweetheart, really…"

Marceline chuckled as she took a second look at the princess's chest accentuated from the towel. She knew Finn was oblivious to the female body, at least she thought so, so it was good that Finn was dating her not for her body but for who she was. That was a much more honest perspective of their relationship than a person who didn't know any better would assume. Finn was just a kid now, but when he grows older and their relationship blooms, he'll soon realize what it means to see that a bigger bust is better.

'Finn, you have no idea how lucky you are,' she thought as she reeled her head backwards to stare into the night sky, absorbing the heat of the water with her body.

Maybe she _was_ jealous of the princess. She had a loving boyfriend, an honest duty as the princess of the Candy Kingdom, talent as a smart scientist, and a perfect body too. But she wasn't jealous in the way that she wanted to live her life. Marceline was happy for Bubblegum. Having a bigger chest size than her was another thing she had over the vampire, but that was it. She still had immortality, strength, coolness, and a carefree attitude that many people adored her for.

It was slowly dawning on Marceline as she was thinking that these qualities defined a woman in a relationship, not just their bodies. Finn was only a kid, a growing one though, yet he was dating the princess not for her body but because he liked her and her qualities. Besides, the kid hasn't noticed her voluptuous figure, at least not yet.

Seeing Finn and Bubblegum's relationship like this made her realize what she had aside from her own fine body. She could have a chest as flat as her back, it still wouldn't make her a different character than herself. She was okay the way she was, and a chest size wasn't that important. It was her character that made her Marceline, not her body. And it was Bubblegum's character that made her Bubblegum. Just because she had a bigger chest doesn't make her a better character than her, even if it was the other way around like she thought.

Marceline then realized something. She and Bubblegum were equal in terms of character. Their friendship suddenly seemed a lot more mutual than she saw it, and that made her appreciate what she with Bubblegum. An honest friendship.

'Although, it wouldn't hurt to have a better bust,' she thought.

…

This idea originally started as a funny humor of Bubblegum having bigger breasts than Marceline. Mildly inspired from the title card 'To Cut a Woman's Hair'. You'll know what I mean when you look at it hard enough. :P

Read and review, folks!


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